In case you missed it, check out last week’s ups and downs to see where players are coming from.
| Goalies | Trend | Notes |
| Carey Price |  |
After two weeks of putting up a .951 save percentage, Price dropped all the way down to .943 this week. So why is he trending up? Because he’s been saving the Habs’ asses all week. His spectacular performance against the Bruins was a high point in a Hart-worthy season so far. |
| Peter Budaj |  |
Budaj wasn’t spectacular against New Jersey in his one start of the week, but he was good enough to get the sloppy Habs to the shootout, and stopped 2/3 shots en route to the win. |
| Defensemen | ||
| P.K. Subban |  |
Subban began the week with a tour de force performance against New Jersey, single handedly stopping two goals and drawing praise from Therrien. After that, three subpar games marred with puckhandling miscues that saw Subban on the ice for 4 goals against. An anomaly of a week, hopefully. |
| Andrei Markov |  |
Markov wasn’t much different than Subban, making rare mental mistakes and turning into a turnover machine. He still managed a couple of fantastic assists, but we all expect a lot more from this top pairing. |
| Josh Gorges |  |
Therrien has to recognize sooner or later that the Gorges/Emelin pairing doesn’t work. They had a pretty good game against Buffalo, but that’s Buffalo. Gorges did have a Markovian assist against Boston, but being on for about 21 shot attempts against every 20 minutes at even strength is straight up ugly. |
| Alexei Emelin |  |
Emelin had a better week than Gorges, but still not a good week. The good news is that when he’s moved away from tougher minutes, he looks a heck of a lot better. He’s still struggling mightily with moving the puck and getting beat to loose pucks. |
| Raphael Diaz | |
A poor week from the top pairing and a great week from Diaz saw him overtake both Subban and Markov as the Habs’ top possession defenseman. He’s playing easy minutes right now, but he’s also alternating between carrying Murray and Bouillon. Impressive play from him. |
| Francis Bouillon | |
Bouillon has put up three straight good games, but he’s fallen out of grace with the coaching staff, a healthy scratch three of the last four games. |
| Douglas Murray |  |
Murray has stolen Bouillon’s spot as the sixth defenseman, and being carried by Diaz at even strength has seen him end up with four straight games of above team average possession numbers. He still managed to single handedly cause two goals against, and hasn’t been on the ice for a single goal for though. |
| Davis Drewiske |  |
Nothing to report on Drewiske, he’s still out for most of the season. |
| Forwards | ||
| Tomas Plekanec |  |
Is there anything Plekanec can’t do? Key goals against Boston and Buffalo, 4 points in 4 games, and consistently shutting down the opponent’s best players. Plekanec is consistently counted out by Habs fans and media, but the Habs’ #1 center continues to be their best forward. |
| Brian Gionta | |
Gionta finally got the goal to bust his long scoring drought, rewarded for his excellent play of late with a beautiful pass from Briere. Only 2 points in 4 games for Gionta, but the constantly criticized captain is tied with Gallagher in points. |
| Danny Briere | |
Briere had a whale of a game against New Jersey on Wednesday, killing it on possession and setting up a great goal. The three other games though, Therrien used him for under 10 minutes and his lack of defensive awareness was badly exposed. Last game he was taken off the top line in favour of Galchenyuk. |
| Lars Eller | |
First Eller loses Gallagher in order to get Desharnais going, then he loses Galchenyuk to bolster the top line with Briere failing to get anything going. It’s a tough situation right now for Lars, and even though he scored a tying goal and in the shootout against New Jersey, this hasn’t been a good stretch for him. |
| Alex Galchenyuk |  |
After a couple of really rough outings, Galchenyuk has bounced back with 3 points in 4 games and an incredibly game on the top line on Saturday. His 20 points put him third on the team in scoring, and he’s been struggling most of the season. |
| Brandon Prust | |
After a brutal stretch, Prust has started to play more like we’re used to seeing of late, especially when put on the fourth line. He was the first star of the game on Saturday with a goal and an assist, and wasn’t on the ice for a goal against in any of the four games this week. |
| David Desharnais | |
Yet another solid week from Desharnais, one of the few players who played hard in the home and home set against New Jersey, he was the first star of both games. The first game he probably shouldn’t have been, but with a last minute tying goal and the shootout winner, he was beyond full value this week. |
| Max Pacioretty | |
Only 2 goals in 4 games this week, but Pacioretty managed to make them count. His game winner against Boston was par for the course for what we expect from him in those games. Pacioretty is scoring a goal every two games this season, and he’s still been absurdly unlucky at even strength with just a 5.7% on-ice even strength shooting percentage. |
| Brendan Gallagher | |
Just one assist this week, even though Gallagher seems to be doing all the right things. It just doesn’t look like Gallagher fits with Desharnais and Pacioretty. He would be far better off being the focal point shooter on a line with Eller. |
| Ryan White | |
White was inexplicably scratched twice this week in spite of being an absolute spark plug lately. In his last two games, White has a 69.6% Corsi at even strength. The fourth line is so much better when he’s in. |
| Travis Moen | |
Moen has been so good this season it’s almost not believable. His two assists Saturday were the only points of the week for him, but 2 points in 4 games is awesome for a fourth line grinder. |
| Michael Bournival | |
Bournival had a very good game in New Jersey, which saw him get promoted for the next two games, only to collapse in possession with the increased role. It’s important to remember that as good as he’s been, he’s still a rookie. |
| Rene Bourque | |
Bourque finally got back into game action, scored a goal, got hit from behind, and is on the injured list again. |
| George Parros |  |
Parros was started against the Bruins because of course he was. Not only was he awful in the game, but he failed to do the only thing he’s paid to do. When Prust was hit from behind while Parros was on the ice, he just watched, skated away, then let Prust take on Shawn Thornton. Not good enough. |
